Contractor Corner
Our NHMF Contractor Forum Membership represents the housing sector’s very best in innovation, best practice, and collaboration. Embodying a broad cross section of organisations with differing interests and specialisms, from the large to the small, we’re speaking to a cross section of our members about the benefits they get from the Forum.
Sonya Russell, Head of New Business, AD Construction Group
AD Construction Group has been a long-standing member of the Contractor Forum, having joined in the 2015, which is testament to the value we get out of our membership as a business. Personally, I’ve been attending the annual NHMF Conference for longer than I care to remember - for over two decades!
Without a doubt, I believe that the main benefit to membership of the Contractor Forum is access to people, learning and data that we would otherwise not easily have. Social Housing refurbishment is a fast-moving sector, with legislation and trends emerging constantly. It’s definitely a specialist market that successful businesses need to keep ahead of, to be able to deliver the right service for our housing clients and their residents. Membership helps contractors get on and stay on the same page.
A Place of Trust
Some organisations might find the concept of sharing space and ideas with competitors uncomfortable, when in fact the total opposite is true. There’s a genuine sense of trust, openness and a willingness to share when we have our quarterly meetings. We discuss the joint challenges we face, share our successes and also our woes. As well as giving a sense of belonging and ‘in it together’, the ultimate outcome is the power this collaboration gives to share information and advise clients with certainty and peace of mind.
Take recent times and the pandemic. The Contractor Forum continued to meet online and I can’t overstate the importance of the sense of camaraderie it created during what were some pretty difficult times. It also helped practically, when as contractors, we were able to get back to working in people’s homes, we had a collective foundation from which to do this safely and presenting a united front.
Facing Challenges Together
AD Construction Group is an SME with around 200 employees, and we always feel that our voice is heard at the Forum. There’s a great mix of businesses and individuals with different opinions and viewpoints which can make for some productive meetings as we look at topics from our own standpoints and see what others are doing. At the moment, it has been useful to share how contractors are managing the supply chain issues. Longer term, for AD Construction Group the Building Safety Bill and Net Zero Carbon will be top of our agenda to ensure that we are always in the best place to help support our clients to meet their goals. Working alongside other members of the Contractor Forum to understand and interpret the legislation means we’re facing these challenges from a position of strength.
Access All Areas
Then there’s the learning and knowledge development aspects which assists in giving me the confidence to go back to my business and to clients with the right advice. The Forum has a brilliant technical Best Practice resource on its website, which is invaluable and offers a chance to share and ask questions in an open, collaborative platform.
If you’re a contractor and want to work with organisations to share both your successes and challenges, the Forum really should be a starting point for you and potentially, a better business.
Sonya will be speaking on ‘Maximising the Value from Soft Market Testing’ at the NMHF Conference alongside Melissa Pearce, (Wates Property Services), Amy Boothman (Ian Williams) and Kim Newman (PML Group).
If you’d like to join a meeting as a guest, you’re more than welcome to try us out.
Contact imogen.bowen@m3h.co.uk to find out more on this, or about the 10% discount we have till the end of the year.
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